City council's Linehouses Gypsy and Traveller site could be run by private firm -

From the Sentinel

A PRIVATE firm or social landlord could be brought in to run the city's only council-owned Gypsy and Travellers site.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has completed a review of the future management of the Linehouses Gypsy and Traveller site, overlooking Goldenhill and Tunstall.

A report will be presented to the members of the council's cabinet tomorrow, where councillors will be presented with five options for the future of the site, which has been there since the 1970s.

These include retaining the current set up, selling the site into private ownership or installing a caretaker to manage the site in-house.

However, the preferred option is to award a Services Concession Contract to look for a third party, possibly a social landlord or business, to sign a contract to run the facility.

Under such an arrangement, the provider would then be responsible for the site's finances; meaning they could decide how money raised from sources like rent should be used.

The council could impose measures to make sure it gets a slice of any substantial profits made to reinvest in other Gypsy pitches.

And the council would ultimately remain accountable for what goes on at the site.

A report to the committee states: "The managing agent would have significant financial responsibly and would carry a good degree of financial risk, reducing that burden on the council.

"There would be a high incentive for the managing agent to ensure full occupancy and stability on the site.

"The council would continue to have responsibility in relation to, for example, ensuring financial accountability and transparency and fit for purpose, equitable and transparent service provision and would, therefore, need to retain capacity to monitor the performance of the managing agency.

"It is anticipated that this option will be cost neutral to the authority."

The site has 33 permanent pitches and six transit pitches, along with associated amenity provision.

The site is usually fully occupied, turn-over of pitches is low and there are currently 137 residents living on the site.

The rental income when it is fully occupied is in the region of £137,000 per year.

For this financial year, rental income is in the region of £8,400 per calendar month, which will result in a total income for the year of approximately £100,800.

Current management arrangements at the site were established in 1996 following a protracted period where the area was subject to a number of anti-social problems.

Tom Simpson, Secretary of the Goldenhill and Sandyford Residents' Association, said: "If someone came in to manage the site, they would have to be sensitive and make sure it's run in the right way."